Luke Machin is one of modern prog’s brightest sparks, but with his solo debut as Soulshine he wanted to do something completely different. The soul-heavy, genre-twisting album features a healthy number of guest spots from prog luminaries as it teeters on the edge of the genre’s borders. That, says the guitarist, was intentional.
“David Gilmour recently said that he never labelled Pink Floyd as a progressive band; they were just writing music,” says Luke Machin. “That’s how I see Soulshine – it’s just good music. I didn’t want to set limitations or boundaries. It just escaped from me like everything does when I’m writing.”
The guitarist, who’s been a shining talent in the progressive rock world over the last 15 years, isn’t beating around the bush when he says his debut solo album is a departure from his usual shtick. Compared to his work in Maschine, Cyan, Karnataka, The Tangent and Francis Dunnery’s iteration of It Bites, Soulshine is something of a palate cleanser.
“It’s definitely different,” he says. “There’s a lot of soul music in there, but it’s just as technical as what I’ve been doing in the prog world.” That technicality is partly a result of the fact that, even when trying to stretch out into other musical realms, the spirit of prog runs deep within him. “Originally I wanted to write a neo-soul album, but it started to branch out in ways I didn’t foresee. That’s testament to losing yourself in music.
“I moved to Brighton to study at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute and to be in a prog band,” he says of his career’s start. “I wanted to do 20-minute guitar solos, and I’ve been doing that for a long time. I still listen to progressive music but there’s a whole other world out there. I had a lot of ideas that didn’t fit into any of the prog bands I’m in.”
The record is a story of two halves. Side A leans heavily into R&B and soul styles, with side B metamorphosed by his trademark trickiness. Its genesis can be traced back eight years and sees Machin playing homage to a different cast of artists. “I saw Jacob Collier and Snarky Puppy live and they melted my face – it was a whole other approach to musicality,” he says.
“But there’s also a big influence from bands my dad showed me when I was growing up: Earth, Wind & Fire, Teddy Pendergrass and George Duke. Wild Roses is a homage to Chick Corea. Not to blow my own trumpet, but it’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever written. It drove me insane – it took me two months to write the last minute of the song. It was played on a £5 guitar I bought from a bloke down the road in lockdown!
Soulshine walks the tightrope between prog and neo-soul; but the record’s lengthy list of guest stars – including Dunnery, Guthrie Govan, Marco Minnemann and Tiger Moth Tales’ Peter Jones – gives it plenty of progressive kudos. Did he write with those musicians in mind?
“A few of them, yes. Final Boss was a really adventurous track. I threw the kitchen sink at in terms of technical ability, and it came back nearly 10 minutes long. When I was programming the drums I was thinking, ‘Who the hell is going to play this?’ Marco was the only drummer I could think of. He’s a monster.”
By 2020, when Machin was ready to call up his guests, lockdown restrictions meant Minnemann – the first person he approached – was available. “It was this silver lining to a very dark cloud. I can’t remember where I got his email from, but he agreed to do it, and sent me a recording back in about two hours. How the hell do you do that? I’d put everything I knew into the song just for him to send it back like it was nothing!
“I’d asked him to record a video of him playing it too. He was sight reading as he was playing. It was mental to watch. After that, I was totally fuelled to get the other guests on.”
Some guests were easier to coax into the project than others, with Dunnery among them. “When we were on tour, he kept singing a melody from the end of [Maschine song] Cubixstro; and because I was influenced by a ton of prog at that time, that song came out very progressive. But that melody got lost in the song. He’d been saying I had to reuse it, and that’s what I did with Turn Around. It made sense he sang on it.
She was singing her stuff during the Ukraine war – there were sirens going off in her recordings
“When he did his slide guitar and vocal solo on Parisian Rooftops, the last note harmonises with Daniel Gildenlöw’s first vocal that comes after. It was a real oh-my-God moment hearing two of my heroes come together like that.”
Guthrie Govan (the Aristocrats, Steven Wilson) was another easy steal. Machin studied under him for two years at BIMM and he’d been a key motivator behind his move to the south coast. “Parisian Rooftops has an R&B feel in 9/8. He came back with an absolute monster solo – everything I listen to Guthrie for has been distilled into that 90-second solo.
“I think the album’s different style is getting a bit more out of everyone; it forced them to deliver things in a different way. If you could snapshot the best of Guthrie or Francis, this album has it.”
Machin had to search further afield for other talents – and here, his intimacy with the prog scene did him no favours. “The first vocalist I got on board was Sh’Kye who’s on Energy, Diving In and Soulshine,” he says. “He’s a soul singer from Texas who I found on [creative marketplace] Fiverr. I didn’t know anybody outside the prog world. I’d gone through about 300 people before I found him.
“He had the exact voice I was after, but he also had the worst recording setup – like he’d recorded through a washing machine! I ended up producing him from across the pond; it was either that or have someone who’s voice wasn’t as fitting.
“I found Anastasia Pshokina on Fiverr too. She does Rise Up, Blossom and all the backing vocals. She did an absolutely stunning job.” He says her recording setup was far better, but the world outside of her home studio was less so. “She was singing that stuff during the Ukraine war – there were sirens going off in her recordings. It was crazy.”
Ultimately, Soulshine is a one-off for Machin; the encapsulation of an esteemed prog musician wanting to venture outside their wheelhouse, even if there are flashes of his original proclivities throughout. He says things will be different in the future. “I’ve actually got the Soulshine live band already waiting in the wings. There’s no way we can recreate the record without a crazy budget, so it’ll be stripped back, and each instrument will take on a lot more roles. I’m excited to see how that comes out.
“Whatever I do for my next album will be completely different again. This album is so polished and finely tuned; it’ll probably be something a lot rawer. It’s been a complete learning curve, especially producing it myself, and I’ve loved making it. I wanted to make an album that I really enjoy listening to, and that is very much the case.”
Soulshine is out now via Bandcamp.
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